Retail

HANDBOOK PO-603 REVISION

Dismount Delivery

Effective immediately, Handbook PO-603, Rural Carrier Duties and Responsibilities, part 313 and subchapter 340, are revised to clarify dismount requirements for delivery of special service mail. This revision permits managers to require deviation from the line of travel, when necessary, to deliver Express Mail® within the required time (service guarantee). Section 313.3 has been incorporated into subchapter 340.

Handbook PO-603, Rural Carrier Duties and Responsibilities

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3 Carrier Performance on Route

310 Route Travel

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313 Dismount Delivery

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[Delete 313.3.]

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340 Special Service and Express Mail

341 Special Service Mail

341.1 General

[Revise 341.11 to read as follows:]

341.11 Acceptance

Registered Mail, COD, Certified Mail, insured mail, return receipt for merchandise, delivery confirmation, and Signature Confirmation may be accepted for mailing provided the customer prepays the required postage and fees.

341.12 Delivery

[Revise 341.121 to read as follows:]

341.121 All special service mail (Registered Mail, Certified Mail, numbered insured mail, return receipt for merchandise, custom duty, COD, and Signature Confirmation) must be delivered to the residence or business. Try to get the customer to come to the vehicle by sounding the horn or by giving some other signal. If there is no response, or if the customer requests you to do so, dismount to deliver to any business or residence that is on the line of travel or within one-half mile of the route and has a passable road leading to it. Special service mail must be delivered to the addressee or an authorized agent. A customer may arrange for redelivery by completing PS Form 3849, Delivery Notice/Reminder/Receipt, appropriately and leaving it in the mailbox or by contacting the local Post Office.

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342 Express Mail

[Revise 342 to read as follows:]

342.1 Acceptance

Express Mail may be accepted for mailing provided the customer prepays the required postage and fees.

342.2 Delivery

342.21 Dismount Delivery

a. All Express Mail must be delivered to the residence or business. Try to get the customer to come to the vehicle by sounding the horn or by giving some other signal. If there is no response, or if the customer requests you do so, dismount to deliver to any residence or business that is on the line of travel or within one-half mile of the route and has a passable road leading to it.

b. In order to meet required delivery times, management may require a carrier, during the course of normal delivery of the route, to deviate from the established line of travel to deliver Express Mail and will provide additional compensation as appropriate. However, a carrier who traverses both sides of a roadway is expected to deliver Express Mail to a residence or business on the opposite side of the roadway in order to meet an established delivery time when it is anticipated that the carrier will not traverse the opposite side of the road until after the required delivery time for the Express Mail piece. In those circumstances where divided highways, limited access roads, hazardous conditions, or other unusual situations exist that may encumber delivery to the opposite side of the roadway, management may require the carrier to deviate and the carrier will receive additional compensation as appropriate.

c. Regular rural carriers (covered under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Section 7(b)(2)) or leave replacements (when compensated on the evaluation of a regular or auxiliary route served and when actual hours do not exceed 40 hours for the week) will be compensated at 2 minutes for each mile required for the deviation from the established line of travel. Rural carriers serving a regular or an auxiliary route that do not have an assigned employer-provided vehicle, will receive an Equipment Maintenance Allowance (EMA) for each mile the carrier is required to deviate when the total miles (route mileage and deviation(s)) for the day exceed 40 miles. During the Christmas period, regular rural carriers, as noted above, will not receive additional compensation for these deviations.

342.22 Signature

Use PS Form 3849, Delivery Notice/Reminder/Receipt, to capture the customer signature for Express Mail.

342.23 Complete Delivery

Utilizing the handheld scanner, scan the Express Mail barcode and enter other appropriate information including the recipient's first initial and last name.

342.24 Incomplete Delivery

Complete and leave PS Form 3849 when delivery cannot be made. Utilizing the handheld scanner, follow procedures for non-deliverable mailpieces as prescribed in section 281.22. Return the article to the Post Office.

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This revision will be incorporated into the next printed version of Handbook PO-603.

— Rural Delivery,
Delivery and Retail, 2-2-06

REVISED FORMS

Stamps by Mail Order Forms

We have revised the Stamps by Mail® (SBM) order form to include an additional item that customers can order - the Love: True Blue stamp.

The SBM order form previously was designated as PS Form 3227. However, because there were actually two different versions of the form - a non-credit card version used by most SBM fulfillment sites, and a credit card version used only by SBM fulfillment sites authorized to accept orders by credit card - we have clarified the form designations as follows:

• PS Form 3227-A, Stamps by Mail.

• PS Form 3227-B, Stamps by Mail (Credit Card).

PS Form 3227-A is to be used by most SBM fulfillment sites, and PS Form 3227-B is to be used only by the three SBM fulfillment sites - New York, NY; Atlanta, GA; and Louisville, KY - that are authorized to accept orders by credit card.

Both PS Form 3227-A and PS Form 3227-B are dated January 2006. Images of both forms appear on page 22 in this issue of the Postal Bulletin.

This article is also intended to update the article titled "Field Implementation Kit" in Postal Bulletin 22168A (12-1-05, pages 58-71). On page 65, there was an image of the November 2005 edition of the credit card version of the SBM order form, but inadvertently there was not an image of the non-credit card version of the SBM order form. In the kit, please replace the image of the November 2005 edition of just the credit card version of the SBM order form with the images of the January 2006 editions of PS Form 3227-A and PS Form 3227-B that appear in this issue of the Postal Bulletin.

— Retail Service Network and Access Management, Delivery and Retail, and Implementation and Outreach, Pricing and Classification, 2-2-06

Accepting Payment for Collect on Delivery

In an effort to assure continuing Postal ServiceTM revenues, employees must collect payments for Collect on Delivery (COD) items, and managers should remind them of proper procedures through either stand-up talks or written notices. Handbook F-1 parts 312 and 313 list procedures for accepting checks for COD items. Following are some guidelines for accepting checks for COD items from customers:

• A carrier may accept a check for COD items provided the check is made payable to the sender.

• The customer's name and address must be imprinted on the check by the check manufacturer.

• If the customer's telephone number is not preprinted on the check, the carrier must request the telephone number (unless prohibited by local or state law) and record it on the face of the check.

• The carrier must not accept post-dated checks.

Before accepting the check, the customer must present a photo-bearing identification with his or her picture and signature. The identification must be one of the following:

• Valid state-issued driver's license.

• State-issued, non-driver identification.

• Passport (foreign or domestic).

• Military identification.

• Other U.S. government-issued identification showing the customer's picture and signature.

— City Delivery,
Delivery and Retail, 2-2-06